Hey Readers! Here to update about my NaNoWriMo 2023 journey.

So, I’ve always been a pantser, but before I started the NaNoWriMo for “The Archmage’s Wish” (new and improved title), I had done a little freewriting. That freewriting developed into a small outline that I was going to use as a jumping board to begin writing.

And so, the first couple of days were a disaster. I literally only got barely a hundred words done a day.

I made a music novel playlist on YouTube, where I collected a musical theme song for each chapter. Doing that actually unlocked my mind for three more chapters that I hadn’t even written yet, which added to the planning part of the process.

Those became more part of the outline. The music I chose decided what would happen next.

Planning the story before I wrote.

Writing became harder still, so to ease the passage, I began to using the pomodoro technique.

Pomodoro just means to study, or work in bursts and break in set times. I used the 25/5 set, which is 25 minutes to work and 5 minute break, and it made for 2 hours work. I had 3 videos up, these in particular, (I actually had the same video twice) and once one video ended, I went to the next.

At the same time, I used the focus timer that came with my computer, which does 6 focus sessions of 21 minutes with 5 minute breaks.

So with using those together, I ended up with a kind of dual pomodoro that gave me a total of 10 minute breaks in a rotational basis. Once I did that, I wrote for 7hrs one day, and over 10hrs the next day.

November 7^th found me up and writing at 2 a.m. in the morning, since my alarm accidentally went off and woke me up at midnight. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I figured since I was awake…might as well write.

Then I went to Las Vegas from November 8^th to November 10^th.

And very little writing got done. No writing was done on November 9^th, knocking me out of my 8 day streak of writing every day for NaNoWriMo.

But with most of NaNo, every day passed where I only eked out a meager 100 to 230 words, days passed with barely 50 words, or days went by where I didn’t write at all….the gap between how many words I need to write every day widened.

Traditionally, you only need to write 1667 words a day to win. When I woke up this morning, I need to write 6274 words a day. I’m pretty badly behind with only 6080k words written total on Day 24.

But…I can still catch up. If I write around 10-15 words a day, I could actually still win NaNo this year.

And I know its possible.

In 2014, my very first NaNo, I won with 150k words written.

I actually wrote 50k words every week or two, just about, and while all of those words didn’t finish the novel (I didn’t write a complete draft until the 9^th draft) there were days I wrote 6k to 10k words in a single day. So I know I CAN do it.

Its not that I don’t care or I am not interested in The Archmage’s Wish.

In fact, I realized what was wrong, why even after I got the pomodoro I began to slip with writing.

I think it was the outline.

The fact that I had decided what was going to happen, before writing the story.

The reason I’ve always stuck staunchly by pantsing, and never planning/outlining/plotting.

The past week, every time I came onto my NaNo novel to write, and I had everything set up, my hot chocolate, my writer’s space, my music, I’d stare at it and have absolutely nothing to say. I’d even look at my outline, and see what I had written down of what I had decided was going to happen next…and feel nothing.

If I’ve dictated the story, the story doesn’t move. I need the story to flow on its own, to let the story take me where it wants to go. If I try to drag the story along, decide where the story goes, then I’ve lost all interest.

So, I decided to trash the outline, ignore the outline, pretend it doesn’t exist. Let the story play out on its own.

No more planning. I have to go by the seat of my pants. Letting the story be free and have the room to breathe and creative is the only way.

So, even though there is only like…6 days left? I’m still in it to win it.

So I said I was not going to quit.

Onward!

But then I didn’t…

November 25, November 26, November 27, November 28…they all went by without a single word written.

So then November 29, November 30…and December 1^st.

National Novel Writing Month ended.

With a grand total of 6272 words.

So why then?

Why did NaNoWriMo go out with vary a whimper, but a silent little nothing?

The main reason is that I was overwhelmed with my master’s work for Lesley University, my recovery for my two failed surgeries (did I even talk about the fact I had two surgeries on my right eye that both failed? Yeah, that happened.)

And so, I kept giving those things priority. And as I got more overwhelmed (and underwhelmed) and exhausted, I began to watch motivational videos to get me motivated to write, and to do the things I had to do. It would work enough to get me to eke out those small bursts of numbers, that led me to finish NaNo with the 6k words.

But…instead of talking about being overwhelmed, and my personal life and the trainwreck of my master’s program…

I just wanted to talk about why I don’t want to plan or outline.

I really think it kills my creative process. I’m just not interested in a story that’s dictated already.

I took part in the R. L. Stine stream that was held by NaNoWriMo. It was excellent in every way. R. L. Stine is actually a comedian, and I loved reading Goosebumps growing up. I have so many of his books on my shelves to this day. He spoke about how he does his books, and that how he outlines, and that he thinks that pantsers have plotting problems. He could be right, sure. But so far in my writing journey, if I try to start and write a story with a strict outline (or even a vague outline) I lose all interest, impetus and desire to write anymore.

I just need to be free. I need to write as the story takes me, and go wild. At least for the first, maybe second draft. After I’ve had my fun writing recklessly…then I can pull out some kind of bones of an outline, because I’ve figured out what my story is about, and set it up properly, and follow along with the next draft.

But not the first one. And I think that if I wasn’t overwhelmed by everything going haywire, health crisis and dumpster fires in my life, that I could have written more, once I realized it was the outline that was killing my creative process, and just written more freely.

But alas, NaNo is over, and I didn’t hit the desired 50k.

I am still going to keep writing, of course. I have The Archmage’s Wish, an untitled young adult novel, the Emmy Bell series, and a middle grade novel that I’ve been keeping to myself. There’s still novels I’m working on. Just steady and slowly, but still working on.

And there’s the artist part of my career that I’m doing too, but I’m trying not to announce my plans so much, because one, thanks to all the motivational videos, and two, simply due to my own past failed ideals, I’ve learned on my own that every time I announce or declare what I’m going to do, I fall through and don’t do them.

So I’ll just say “working on” or something like that, and do what I’m doing.

And with that, I’ll close out this blog post.

Hey Readers! If you want to follow along with my journey as a writer and artist, consider following my blog, and get an email direct to your inbox each time I post! Also hit my socials on Instagram @aecostellowrites and @aecostelloart, and don’t forget my author page on Facebook!